Teachers' influence on classroom atmosphere

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine how teachers can influence both the classroom and the atmosphere of the classroom effectively. Near the end of the first term of the school year, and again near the end of the final term, students in the upper grades of an elementary school (107 fourth graders, 114 fifth graders, and 92 sixth graders) were questioned about their cognition of a teacher and the classroom atmosphere. Factor analysis enabled extraction of factors of the students' cognition of a teacher, including acceptance and affinity, confidence and objectivity, fear, punishment, and robustness, and, as factors of classroom atmosphere, mutual respect among the students, discipline, willingness, enjoyment, and resistance. Multiple regression analysis suggested that the factors strongly related to classroom atmosphere were acceptance and affinity, and confidence and objectivity. The influence of the acceptance and affinity factor on the 2 classroom atmosphere factors of willingness and enjoyment was clear in the data from the end of the first term. In contrast, at the end of the first term, the factor of confidence and objectivity showed no relation to any of the atmosphere factors. The results from the end of the final term, however, strongly suggested that, at that time, confidence and objectivity had a large positive influence on mutual respect among the students, and a large negative influence on resistance.